Medicine Hat has the sunniest, driest climate in the province and some of the widest daily temperature swings, and that combination is unusually hard on a steel box. Containers here do agricultural and industrial storage and a fair amount of workshop duty. Shipping container spray foam insulation in Medicine Hat is about controlling what that daily swing does inside the box.
A dry climate does not mean a dry container
This surprises people. The air outside can be dry while the air inside a closed container is not, because anything stored in it, any ground moisture underneath it and any warm body working in it adds humidity that has nowhere to go. When the steel drops overnight, that moisture lands on it. The province's driest corner still produces wet container walls.
The swing is the mechanism
Hot afternoon, cold night, repeated most of the year. Every cycle takes the interior air across its dew point again. That is more condensation events per year than a cool, steady climate produces, which is why containers here can look worse than ones further north despite the milder winter.
Closed cell, bonded, no gap
Two pound closed cell sprayed onto the interior steel eliminates the cold surface rather than covering it. Batt leaves a cavity behind it where air circulates and the steel goes on condensing unseen. Closed cell is also its own vapour retarder at the thicknesses used here and stiffens the structure.
Interior or exterior
Interior is the usual choice and the cheaper one, and it costs some interior width. Exterior application is possible but must be clad over, because foam breaks down under ultraviolet light and southern Alberta supplies plenty of it. Left bare outside it will not last.
Air channels behind board on a ridged wall
A container wall is a series of ridges rather than a flat plane. Rigid board bridges those ridges and leaves continuous air channels behind the insulation, which is precisely where condensation then forms out of sight. Batt has to be furred out, costing labour and interior width and creating the same hidden cavity. Spray foam conforms to the corrugation profile and bonds to it, which is why it is the standard specification for this structure and not a premium upgrade.
What it is protecting here
Around Medicine Hat the contents are usually agricultural or industrial: equipment and parts that rust, chemical that must stay dry, feed and dry goods where mould rather than corrosion is the risk. In every case the loss is gradual and unnoticed until it is significant, which is the argument for dealing with the box rather than replacing the contents.
Shipping Container Spray Foam Insulation Medicine Hat: Common Questions
It is dry here - why is my container wet inside? Because the moisture is generated inside and trapped, and the overnight temperature drop condenses it on the steel. Outside humidity is not what decides it.
Can it be sprayed on the outside instead? Yes, but it then needs cladding to protect it from sunlight. Inside is more common and less expensive.
What thickness? It depends whether the box is occupied, heated intermittently or purely storage. We ask before quoting rather than after.
Does the ceiling need it too? Every sprayed surface in the occupied space. In a Medicine Hat container the thermal barrier covers the ceiling as well as the walls.
Estimate your job, then get a free Medicine Hat quote. See closed cell spray foam and spray foam insulation in Medicine Hat.